


Homemade

by kranquro



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 10:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28349745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kranquro/pseuds/kranquro
Summary: Temari is to move to Konoha soon, so the Sand Siblings decide to have one last festive homemade Christmas together.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11
Collections: Naruto/Boruto Secret Santa 2020





	Homemade

Temari fixed the last trail of sparkling lights onto the limb of the cactus, then stood back to admire her work. The red, blue and green bulbs twinkled softly, setting fluttering primal colours across the walls of their house. A shift in the placement of the cactus caused the light to shine sharply into her eyes.And she leaned to the side, blinking rapidly, to observe her two younger brothers hanging small baubles onto their side of the tree and shaking it precariously.

Gaara’s own eyes followed Kankuro’s every move as he placed the ornaments, intent on learning exactly how to decorate correctly. Kankuro lorded over the task, for once feeling like he had something to teach his little brother rather than the other way around. Even is it was just decoration placement. His cool expression belayed his pride at instructing Gaara, who hadn’t recognised his brother’s smugness. Or chose not to.

“Does this look okay, Kankuro?” His face belayed an innate sincerity as Kankuro checked over his work.

“A little more to the left,” Kankuro instructed. “And you’ll need more glue on this one.”

Temari’s eyes widened.“Glue?!”

She circled round to the other side of cactus, ducking beneath a prickly limb to come between her brothers. Sure enough, both were passing a small tube of super glue between them, and the clear strings of it hung haphazardly from each bauble where they were affixed neatly to the cactus. Gaara even had a smudge of it stuck to his finger, turning it dirty and glossy. The sight brought a heavy sigh to Temari’s throat.

“You know I wanted you guys to keep this cactus afterwards, right?”

Gaara looked at Kankuro, who flustered back at his sister. “I mean, yeah? But like, we still can!”

“So you’ll have a permanently decorated Christmas cactus in the living room? Year round?”

The two brothers exchanged a glance. “…Why not?!”

“Right,” she said, rolling her eyes. Sometimes Kankuro just did not think through his actions, and it grated on her. But she reminded herself to be patient, and not panic about leaving her brothers alone in the coming weeks. “I suppose it’s a commemoration of the last Christmas we spend together. As just us.”

The baubles lowered in their hands as they were all dejectedly reminded of Temari’s impending move across the continent.She and her boyfriend Shikamaru had gotten engaged earlier in the year, but Temari had decided to wait and spend one last Christmas in Suna before upending her place here and joining her fiancé on the east coast. Next year, she would be decorating a completely different tree. With her soon-to-be husband.

She folded her arms, attempting to lighten the mood by turning back into the bossy sister. “Well, at least its neat! You two will have to hurry up and do the other side if you want to finish before we open the presents.” She finished with a raise of her eyebrows.

Eager to do the gift exchange, the brothers raced to continue gluing all around the tree. Gaara now confidently attaching baubles as he went, while Kankuro’s became more sloppy in his haste. This cactus was the first tree they had ever decorated together, and they decided to do it on Christmas Day. Previously, they had a sorry-state of a tree, plastic and small, left behind in the attic from previous tenants. This year, the last year, they’d made it special.

So they’d decided on a special theme for their gifts too. Everything had to be homemade.

Temari kneeled and shifted the gifts she’d made for her brothers over to lay in front of her. And within minutes, the boys were doing the same. Gaara sat back on his heels, perfectly still and observing as Kankuro crossed his legs and leaned back on his palms.

“Should I go first?”

Without waiting for a reply, Kankuro threw the two the lumpy parcels to his siblings. Gaara caught his, and in doing so, unravelled the poorly wrapped knitted jumper within. Temari brushed her own gift wrap aside to find her own lavender jumper in contrast to Gaara’s pastel green. Her brother had obviously spend many hours on their gifts, and to his credit they were very good quality. She passed her fingers over the artful pearl and noticed few mistakes. Instantly, a lump built in her throat. Lifting it from it’s wrapper she held it up to herself to suddenly notice a message emblazoned across the front in yellow script.

_Konoha sucks._

She felt herself frown, but the reproach that should have been straight to her lips instead erupted in a snort and giggles. Looking up, she is just in time to see Gaara’s messy red hair pop out of the hole of his own jumper, which had it’s own message stitched in dark green across the front.

_What the Fucculent?_

She giggled at that too. And even Gaara had a small smile for the inappropriate message. “It’s like my succulents,” he said, holding the hem out to read it upside down. “But instead of ‘suck’, it says ‘fuck’.”

“Gaara, language!”

Kankuro’s smug expression from earlier had returned, and he folded his arms nodding at a job well done.

“My gifts are obviously the best,” he said with a self-satisfied smirk. “Beat that jerks.”

“We’ll see, brother!” Temari put her own jumper over her head before she passed the two gifts of her own making. “Careful,” she said, alerting them to the fragility of the items. They glanced at each other before slowly lifting matching mason jar lamps from the glittery bags. They looked questioningly at eat other then at the lamps. Gaara, noticing the lettering along the bottom, began to read. “ _But without the dark, we wouldn’t know the warmth of light_.”

Kankuro faked a gag, and Temari slugged him in the shoulder. He rubbed it sourly as she pouted. “Well, excuse me for being sappy. I wanna give you something to remember me by.”

“You’re not dying, Tem! You’re just moving out!”

“Thank you, Temari. I’ll put it in my office.” Gaara looked pointedly at Kankuro.

“Yeah, thanks Tem,” he grumbled. “My workshop _has_ been a bit dim lately.”

“You’re welcome.” Temari had spent an age crafting the lamps and sourcing the correct wiring and bulbs. She thought they looked very hip and trendy if she did say so herself. “Gaara?”

Gaara pulled three small boxes from under the cactus, before carefully arranging them in front of him in a neat line. He slid the outside two to his brother and sister, and kept the middle one to himself. “I made myself one too.”

Temari delicately picked up the small box before her. It was unlabelled, and unassuming. Slowly, she leveraged the lid free and gasped slightly at the gift within. A small purple and white fan lay on a bed of tissue paper. It was attached to a looped string and she lifted it out until it hung from her index finger. It twirled in the light of the cactus, revealing the intricate carvings showing the layers of the fan. It was impressive in it’s detail. And immediately she recognised the reference.A miniature Christmas decoration of a memory she’d almost forgotten.

“Gaara,” whispered Kankuro in awe, as he stared at his own personalised decoration. It looked like a shrunken-head, but Temari knew it to be the shaggy-haired puppet Karasu. Her youngest brother opened his own box to reveal a small sandy gourd, with a red ribbon around it’s centre.

The three of them held up their decorations, and the moment was oddly touching. She was surprised Gaara had remembered, being the youngest of the three and so careful to not bother the other two with memories of his childhood. Of their childhood. Of the overbearing and strict father who made their lives so difficult. Of the fun ninja game Temari had invented to play in the garden when their father was in his worst moods.

She’d relied on this game to distract her brothers as they sought refuge in their sandy back yard; Temari brandishing her imaginary large fan, Kankuro wiggling his fingers to spur on his puppet and Gaara throwing handfuls of sand at imagined enemies that appeared from behind the mesquite bush they’d designated as the bad guys lair. They’d invented these hero personas in that back yard. As children who spent far too much time on their own.

The fact that Gaara remembered this, nearly fifteen years on…it brought tears to Temari’s eyes. She looked up, to see Kankuro gently brushing the hair on the small puppets head. “It’s exactly how I imagined Karasu, Gaara. How did you know?”

“You told me. And drew pictures. I remember,” said Gaara honestly, almost not seeing how touched his siblings were. “It meant a lot to me,” he added. And a tear escaped Temari’s eyes. She didn’t move to wipe it away. And Gaara’s eyes widened, Kankuro following shortly after.

“Tem?”

She looked at her two brothers. The two people she had spent the last twenty years living with. And soon she was going to leave them to fend for themselves. Suddenly she looked and saw the two little boys she had invented this imaginary ninja game for in front of her. She buried her face inher hands and felt two sets of hands at her shoulders.

“It’s okay, Tem.”

“It’s not okay! This is our last Christmas together! The Sand Siblings! Split apart, because of me.” She sobbed again, but lowered her hands to wipe messy tears with the sleeve of her new jumper. “I’m just gonna miss you guys so much,” she admitted.

“We’re gonna miss you too, Tem,” said Kankuro unsteadily. He wrapped himself around her in a hug, and soon Temari felt tentative but firm arms approach from the other side. “And we can come visit you in Konoha next year for Christmas, if you’ll have us.”

Temari slapped him on the shoulder. “Of course you’re coming to visit me, shit-for-brains.” She sniffed and smiled, pulling back from her brothers to grasp each of their faces in her hands. “You need to visit me all the time, okay?”

“Absolutely.” “Of course.”

“And thank you, Gaara. I love the gift. I remember this fan well.” She looked down at the small decoration still sitting on her lap. It looked like it was made of clay, but it didn’t crumble beneath her sweaty palms as she picked it up and cradled it to her chest with her eyes closed. “I’ll keep it up year-round too. It’ll remind me of you two.”

Her brothers swapped a glance again before Gaara nodded and they both deposited their own decorations into her hands. “Here,” said Gaara. “Take the trio. I can make more. And you can take these to Konoha. If we’re to have a cactus displayed year round, you can hang these decorations where you want in your new home. If Shikamaru won’t mind.”

“Pfft. As if I care about that.” She looked down as the small figurines in her palms. They were perfect. She reached forward and wrapped an arm around each brother’s neck before drawing them in for another hug. “Thank you,” she said. “I’ll miss you guys so so much. Thank you.”

Kankuro and Gaara met each other’s eyes over their sisters head. If Kankuro’s eyes were glassy, Gaara didn’t say a thing. If Gaara’s stung slightly, well, he wasn’t saying anything either.

**Author's Note:**

> This is for daszomby over on Tumblr for the Naruto Secret Santa Gift Exchange. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this little fic for your prompt! :D Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! x


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